The UN Security Council on Thursday renewed for another year an arms embargo on Cote d'Ivoire and decided to ban imports of rough diamonds from the war-torn West African country.

In a resolution adopted unanimously, the council reaffirmed its readiness to impose financial and travel restrictions on anyone it deemed to have impeded the peace process in Cote d'Ivoire, have publicly incited hatred and violence in the country, or have violated the arms embargo.

The 15-nation council imposed the arms embargo on Cote d'Ivoire in a resolution passed in November last year.

The new resolution declared that any serious obstacle to the freedom of movement of the UN peacekeeping force in Cote d'Ivoire and the French troops that support the UN mission is a threat to peace and national reconciliation in the country.

Cote d'Ivoire was plunged into a civil war in September 2002 after a failed coup attempt against President Laurent Gbagbo. The country has been split since then, with the rebel New Forces holding the north and the government of Gbagbo controlling the south. A buffer zone between them is being monitored by the UN and French peacekeeping forces.

(Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2005)